Women’s Weeklies Round Up – July-December 1999

July to December figures for 1999 show that the women’s weeklies market has declined in overall sales when compared to the same period a year earlier. Total sales for the sector came in at 7.8 million copies, down slightly by 2.2%.

Bauer’s Take A Break leads the market, despite circulation falling 3.4% year on year. There is a big fall from first to second place, as Woman magazine slips 560,000 copies behind Take A Break, as its sales drop 5.8% year on year.

Whilst the majority of the women’s weekly market has fallen in circulation, there are a few exceptions. OK particularly performed well over the last half of 1999, with circulations increasing by over 150,000 or 37.7%. OK‘s publisher, Northern & Shell, recently reached an out of court settlement with arch-rival Hello after the latter claimed that OK had been distributing inaccurate sales figures for Hello magazine (see Newsline Brief). Where this time last year Hello led the battle for sales, OK‘s surge in popularity has catapulted it into the lead in these figures.

Elsewhere, Chat has risen slightly by 0.2%; More has also increased by 2.3%. Now had the largest relative rise, up 12.9% on July-December 1998.

Looking at the whole market, IPC again has the highest circulation for this particular sector, as its six titles continue be a big success. IPC takes a 36% share of the whole market. The Bauer titles, which have only been audited by the ABC for the last three periods, are just behind with 30% of the market.

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